To n247080 It sounds like "exposed aggregate". It is a concrete driveway that is washed before setting to expose the stones.

Peggy Tupper, you are wise beyond your years. That is exactly what it is! Thanks for helping me through that senior moment! I even got a bid on it a few years ago. It's on my to do list once I get a few other outside projects completed first.

With these modern homes that are all garage and driveway from the front, it's a nice alternative for those of us who have to deal with shoveling and snow.

@mjb what happened to your driveway? I had one that was 40 years old and in fine shape. My husband and I never resealed it in the fifteen years we owned it. My parent's driveway is almost 50 years old, in great shape, not resealed. This is in New England - a fairly harsh climate.

I live on Cape Cod - we have a crushed sea shell driveway

I voted for asphalt, because I know it stands up to snow and plowing. I'd prefer pavers, but only if someone can assure me they'll stand up to the treatment they'll get.

to me asphalt looks great for 4-5 years in the northeast. then the cracks appear and it looks awful. as for maintenance, other than concrete, is pay a huge sum to replace every 10 years vs, pay a little every year to maintain it.

I designed a driveway with concrete with pebbles in between set in a permeable resin. A beautiful, contemporary transformation that compliments the landscape remodel in Northern California. Here are a couple of photos and a link to the project: http://www.houzz.com/projects/582416/modern-water-side-landscape-remodel-front-lawn-replaced-novato-ca

I live in a small country town. I don't have sidewalks and if the driveway wasn't gravel it would be a mud pit in winter. Plus I love knowing when someone pulls in.

Tar and chip. It's asphalt with rocks pressed in. Looks like gravel, but durable. Looks great for a mountain or country home.

I prefer to have pavers for tires and grass center and sides.

I am consider porous concrete as I like the idea of effective water run off. Love the pic of the concrete slabs with pebbles in resin.

I've had dirt, gravel, asphalt and concrete. Concrete, hands down.

As much as I love to live in the country, I miss my asphalt driveway. The gravel is a pain. In the winter, it invariably gets heaped onto the grass when we have to plow snow to clear the driveway. In spring and fall, it gets stuck to moist vehicle wheels and ends up in the garage, which ends up on my mudroom. And in the summer, I battle with the grass to keep the driveway edges sharp and defined. We seem to be able to grow grass in abundance where we don't want it and struggle with it where we do want it. A never ending challenge around our place.

I have exposed aggregate, which looks nice, but the tiny pebbles are all coming loose. It's painful to walk on. When I use the leave blower, hundreds of them blow off. I've looked into resealing it, but read that it doesn't really help. Any suggestions?

Pavers, because they do not crack and can be removed and replaced as needed if there is any utility work needed. Most concrete is placed incorrectly therefor resulting in cracks.

Asphalt does not have the live span as concrete and does not have a clean defined line at the edges to work to with landscaping.

I have had great success with lime rock gravel when contained with concrete borders and tamping with a soil compactor. The key is containment and the compacting.!!

Your Favorite Builder, mark worley

www.worleyconst.com

If you live somewhere south sans snow, your drive is grated properly for drainage and you are concerned about not disturbing trees (we live in a several hundred year old oak hammock) cracked granite is a wonderful choice. It locks into place and over 7 years has shifted only slightly. Dupont makes a fabric grid that holds the stones in place (you can ride bikes on it as well as walk on it in heels). Another product from recycled plastic is also available that serves the same purpose. As we live on the outskirts of town, we love the sounds of the gravel and appreciate the alert to visitors arrival. That said, if we lived in town with less acreage or lived where it snowed, pavers would be much more practical. Good Luck!

I have always loved the look of concrete, it says classy and sofisticated to me. It's like they are saying I want the best and I never want to have to think about it again. I have asphalt, all cracky and dippy.

We got a brand new asphalt driveway last year. Asphalt can look good or bad - check out the before and after. I think it is quite something!

Permeable driveway materials are becoming more common, especially as in our area, we have to deal with rain runoff into storm drains. Permeable surfaces help to solve some of that yet stand up to our tough mid-Atlantic freeze/thaw weather conditions.

Because of our quarter mile long driveway in the country, we have gravel. The problem is keeping the weeds under control. If we could afford the thousands of dollars it would cost to resurface it, I'd probably have asphalt. It would be easier to install than the other options.

I live on Vancouver Island in Victoria. The last house I had constructed, I specified exposed aggregate concrete. It works very well for the Pacific Northwest; not a problem for traction and looks good. Now I have pavers. Looks great, and you can incorporate patterns easily. Not a lot of runoff either. If you get any stains, you can flip the paver over or replace it. The only 'problem' is that you get moss and weeds growing between the pavers. Asphalt is okay, but gets soft in the hot summer sun, and allows motorcycles on kickstands to topple when the surface gets a bit soft.

The choice of material is definitely impacted by the location where it's being used. The size of the driveway is also a consideration. Our driveway is the length of a football field. Although I like concrete,it's cost prohibitive so we opted for asphalt millings. The drive is now similar to a highway road as it compacts and hardens with the Florida heat. I love the long winding look as it leads to our home.

My driveway (which I use as a long patio) dates from the 30s and is made up of large cement squares. But I would love to have a gravel or crushed shell driveway. I have vivid childhood memories of visiting a family friend's house near the coast. They would dig for clams each day and their driveway was lined with crushed, bleached shells. I loved the crunching sound our old 50s Plymouth made as it rolled over them.

I have aggregate. I like the gravel like texture while the stones stay put.

If I had my dream driveway, it would lattice pavers with grass growing in between. Living in the country with an extra long driveway that needs a large snow blower to clear the snow, it wouldn't be practical at all so we have concrete. Some of our neighbors have blacktop, some very fine gravel.

I need someone to pave a drive way, at least 3000ft.Please help!

I didn't see it mentioned but my favorite drives always seem to be those older ones that only have brick or concrete where the tires go and then the interior is grass

gravel. (it's SOOOoooo much easier on horse hooves!) and because it can run off in torrential rains on the hills (3/4 mi long driveway here) i put down our spring shearing fleeces and lay gravel atop that. after driving over a few weeks it's as strong as concrete and much MUCH more fun!

My mom has had pavers for 20 years and they definitely hold up beautifully in harsh Canadian winters. Just seal them every 3-5 years and they will outlast you living in the home. Quick inexpensive job to reveal. Roller and bucket and couple hours. Definitely the way to go if you have the budget but make sure they do the base properly so that very little dipping happens. Not an issue as easy to lift out small section to relevel if they do 5 to 10 years down the road.

We have an asphalt drive with stamped concrete curbs and like it as well, hot melt seal every 2-3 years by heated molten liquid asphalt that is back rolled. Keeps the dark black look and prolongs the life. The main advantage to sealing, is it prevents the breakdown of the outer surfaces which then cause very little crumbling ie stons letting loose from the tar and pitting the surface like you see on roadways. Also sealing micro cracks which in snow icy climates can lead to cracks in the future. For 60 bucks.. Well worth it. It's not just cosmetic! If you don't have people with the hot asphalt melt who come around, even doing it by a big box store 10yr or 25yr bucket and roller technique every 2 years is good as well just not as good as it doesn't melt into the surface layer and a bit more cumbersome for the home owner.

I personally wouldn't let so called pros who spray warm liquid asphalt and don't back roll do my driveway as that is basically just painting and last only a year and does nothing for protection.

Plain concrete is dull, may eventually crack and repairs would be obvious and way more expensive to replace then asphalt.

Stamped concrete looks great if done well but is very slippery when wet so safety an issue with elderly or toddlers. Plus, by smoothing it with the stamped, commercial salt application at street junction make it very prone to de lamination and pitting, looking it look horrible in as little as 5years. I'd inly do it on side curbs.

Gravel.. Seriously, only if you lived in the country in dirt roads and I'd still do something near the house as a parking pad.

What do u recommend for high desert California? Don't really like the gravel look though

Gravel of course.

We have concrete (most homes in the area do) but I would LOVE pavers one day... but not the maintenance that goes with them. Guess i'll stick with concrete... or maybe concrete squares or pieces that sort of resemble pavers.

RE to Monique Lucero and others that have talked of pavers maintenance. One of my old neighbors had a combination gravel paver drive, which as we all know spews gravel everywhere and in no time is full of weeds. They carefully took their time putting it in. He worked at a lumber mill and the mills have a cloth to put over the chips-super thick fiberglass stuff. It was free to him and he took it home carefully dug out like 1/2 a foot for his drive put the cloth down as a weed barrier, then loads of gravel rented one of those steam rollers packed it down like crazy and then did the pavers where they wanted them-especially where the gravel was likely to splatter-to keep that at a minimum. It was a lot of work and took a lot more time than just throwing down gravel and pavers, but they have had that same drive weed free, mildew free and maintenance free for nearly 3 decades

I've never had pavers, but would like that for my next home.

We put in a grass driveway....unlike an old farm track it's engineered, expensive and environmental. It doesn't look great after a harsh Ontario winter but we put grass seed down today and have high hopes. An attempt to help filter run off and prevent damage to the nearby lake.

I love the look of pavers!

The home I grew up in, in my home country, had a stone driveway, with a thick cement grout, and we always had to pressure wash it, it was a bit of a pain, but pavers done without grout looks lovely.

My parents current home in Brazil have the grass driveway, but I don't think it works for every home. If there's a lot of traffic the grass never grows properly, and in the case of my parents, they have a part of the driveway in shade and the grass refuses to grow between the cement blocks there.

And we just bought a house with a concrete circular driveway, as concrete seems to be the norm around here.

It depends on the area and style of the house. I live in Texas, and asphalt softens in the extreme summer heat and quickly winds up with ruts. Our neighborhood HOA won't allow it for that reason. I have a mix of regular and stamped concrete.

We have good ole cracked cement.

Stamped concrete

I like the idea of concrete because there are many forms/variations & colors to choose from. You could even get the concrete mixed in/stained in a way that it looks like marble or just marbled because of how they stain it.

Driveway material choice is best decided by the climate and the architecture of the house and neighborhood,

Pavers are cute too

Pavers look great but are they compatible with basketball?

Asphalt would be best for basketball. You need a hard, even surface with as much 'give' as possible. The harder the surface, the harder it is on your knees and joints.

Asphalt would be a better option from the above. Asphalt is a common substance used for paving driveways. However, there are different types of asphalt, like perpetual pavement, porous asphalt, quiet asphalt, warm-mix asphalt, and hot-mix asphalt. Every type has its own advantages and can be used according to its features.

I grew up with a large, asphalt driveway and watched my Dad reseal it nearly every year for 34 years, not sure if it was necessary but my Mom liked the way it looked, fresh and new!

I always thought it was used in New England to expand and contract with the heat/cold. A previous posted reminded me of how hot it got in the summer, when we were running around barefoot and how we weren't allowed to put our bicycle kick stands on it!

I've now lived in southern California for 30 years and each home I've owned has had a concrete driveway. There was always another decorative element, such as tile or stone borders or inserts and I used colored/stained concrete too.

If I had the choice again, I really like the look of the permeable/green driveways where the pavers are only partially visible or not visible at all. The photos above of the multiple slabs with filler in-between is also appealing!

Try stamped asphalt. You can customize your driveway to your style while still getting the durability you need.

We have to use solar driveway lights to make them beautiful.

I need to redecorate my garden and change the driveway material. Now it's asphalt, but I just love the pavers because they make every house look so cozy, but as I know they are less durable. And it's hard to decide which materials to choose when you don't know much about the construction and at the same time don't want to spend much. Especially after the quarantine when my husband has lost his job and our budget got lower. I was looking for a landscaping and driveway design company which can make everything fast and maybe provide a discount.